{
  "source": "Cooked Index — occupational AI risk register",
  "page": "https://cookedindex.com/jobs/funeral-attendants/",
  "methodology": "https://cookedindex.com/methodology",
  "notice": "Verdicts are re-examined as evidence accumulates. Re-fetch before relying on this; the page above always carries the current score.",
  "scored_at": "2026-08-11",
  "model": "claude-opus-5",
  "occupation": {
    "title": "Funeral Attendants",
    "soc_code": "39-4021",
    "category": "Personal Care",
    "us_employment": 31090,
    "median_annual_wage": 35680
  },
  "verdict": "EXPOSED",
  "risk_resistance": 56,
  "contested": false,
  "near_boundary": false,
  "dimensions": {
    "task_resistance": 16,
    "embodiment": 18,
    "liability_shield": 3,
    "trust_premium": 12,
    "judgment_accountability": 7
  },
  "reasoning": {
    "task_resistance": "Lifting a 400-pound casket into a hearse, tenting a graveside canopy, seating a widow, and standing at the chapel door for two hours are tasks no model performs; only the obituary typing and service-schedule entry — maybe an hour of a shift at a small home — is touchable, which is why this sits at 16 rather than a clean 18-20.",
    "embodiment": "The work happens in cemeteries in February rain, on church steps, in loading bays, and in prep-room corridors — uncontrolled ground, unpredictable weather, live traffic during the procession, and human remains being moved by hand — with only the office paperwork slice keeping it off a full 20.",
    "liability_shield": "No state licenses funeral attendants; the funeral director or embalmer holds the license and signs the death certificate, burial-transit permit, and FTC-required price disclosures, so nothing you do creates a credential someone must hire — the 3 reflects only that some states require basic OSHA bloodborne-pathogen training, not a protective ticket.",
    "trust_premium": "You are the person a family sees most on the worst day of their year — the one who hands over tissues, walks grandmother to her seat, and knows which door the pallbearers use — but the family chose the funeral home and the director's name, not yours, and they will not ask for you again by name, which caps a genuine human bond at 12.",
    "judgment_accountability": "Setup sheets, service orders, and the director's instructions govern nearly every move, so discretion is real but narrow: reading when a collapsing mourner needs a chair, resequencing the cortege when a road is blocked, deciding whether to close the casket early — judgment calls with consequences measured in minutes and dignity, not liability, which is a 7 and not a 12."
  },
  "rationale": "Nearly everything a funeral attendant does is physical and in-person: setting up viewing rooms and chairs, moving and positioning caskets, arranging floral tributes, escorting and seating mourners, directing cars in the procession, and closing up the chapel afterward. Language models touch almost none of this — the small automatable slice is the paperwork edge (scheduling, obituary drafting, memorial card printing, records filing) that often gets pushed onto attendants at smaller homes. The exposure in this score is not AI replacing the work; it is that the role carries no license, no sign-off authority, and little decision ownership, so it stays low-wage and easily reshuffled into other staff duties.",
  "outlook": "Demand rises with an aging population and the work stays physically human, but expect flat pay and duty-stacking as software absorbs the clerical side — the durable ladder out is licensure as a funeral director or embalmer.",
  "what_would_raise_it": {
    "levers": [
      {
        "dimension": "liability_shield",
        "change": "State mortuary boards extending registration/apprentice-licensure requirements downward to non-embalming support staff — e.g. requiring a registered 'funeral establishment employee' credential for anyone handling human remains or witnessing cremation identification, as several states already require ID-verification signatures for each cremation (crematory operator certification via CANA/ICCFA). If attendants are the named signatory on the chain-of-custody or cremation ID form, the role acquires a personal-accountability floor.",
        "plausibility": "plausible",
        "would_add": 5
      },
      {
        "dimension": "trust_premium",
        "change": "Growth of high-touch segments where the attendant is the visible service product: green/home funerals, home-vigil and death-doula-adjacent services, and religious traditions requiring constant human presence with the body (shemira watchers, Muslim ghusl assistants). Priced as attended service hours rather than overhead absorbed into a package.",
        "plausibility": "already happening",
        "would_add": 3
      },
      {
        "dimension": "judgment_accountability",
        "change": "Consolidation of small homes into multi-chapel operations where a single licensed director covers several concurrent services, leaving the on-site attendant as the de facto decision-maker for grieving-family incidents, procession safety, and remains handling — a shift already visible in corporate roll-ups (SCI, StoneMor) and formalized where state staffing rules require a designated responsible person on site per service.",
        "plausibility": "plausible",
        "would_add": 4
      },
      {
        "dimension": "embodiment",
        "change": "Already near ceiling; the only route up is if casket lifting, grave-side setup, and procession direction stay manual while the paperwork slice fully departs — no lever, just no downward pressure.",
        "plausibility": "already happening",
        "would_add": 1
      }
    ],
    "ceiling_note": "Even with every lever, this stays a low-wage role: the licensure that carries real liability in death care sits with embalmers and directors, and boards have shown little appetite to credential support staff. Task resistance is already high and cannot rise much — the score is capped by institutional standing, not by machine capability."
  },
  "adjudication": null,
  "employment_history": {
    "points": [
      {
        "y": 2017,
        "emp": 34970,
        "wage": 25050
      },
      {
        "y": 2018,
        "emp": 35340,
        "wage": 26400
      },
      {
        "y": 2019,
        "emp": 34370,
        "wage": 27930
      },
      {
        "y": 2020,
        "emp": 32300,
        "wage": 29150
      },
      {
        "y": 2021,
        "emp": 32490,
        "wage": 29230
      },
      {
        "y": 2022,
        "emp": 32950,
        "wage": 31160
      },
      {
        "y": 2023,
        "emp": 32620,
        "wage": 33850
      },
      {
        "y": 2024,
        "emp": 30560,
        "wage": 34610
      },
      {
        "y": 2025,
        "emp": 31090,
        "wage": 35680
      }
    ],
    "from": 2017,
    "to": 2025,
    "change_pct": -11.1,
    "comparable_from": 2019,
    "spans_soc_revision": true
  },
  "pivots": [],
  "license": "https://cookedindex.com/terms"
}